Traffic Lights on Sidewalks in Germany, Cell Phone Users Don't Bother to Look Up Anymore

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
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I may be old fashioned, but I think this is crazy! Germany is concerned about people who are glued to their cell phone while walking around and are oblivious to traffic signals around them. They installed traffic lights on the sidewalks for these people. What do you think about this? :magnify:

More here.

Worried about people glued to their phones while they walk down the street?Two German cities were concerned enough to install traffic lights that face up at pedestrians ... on the sidewalk.

The southern city of Augsburg recently installed the system at two crowded train stations after a manager saw something similar in Cologne.
Cologne installed similar devices in 2011, according to the German transportation research institute STUVA.

The lights cost about 10,000 euros ($11,313) each. Some have complained about the price, said Jurgen Fergg, a spokesman for the Augsburg municipal service, but the cost is "justified compared to the damage that can be prevented."
 

They are much easier to see if looking at the phone but I'd object if all that money came out of my taxes.

I'd never walk and look at my phone unless I was using a map on it. Otherwise, I'm standing still at a bus stop or train station.
 

They rationalize as "damage that can be prevented". I look at a loser who gets whacked by on coming vehicle as a favor because brain donors like that need to be taken off the streets-literally.

Personal responsibility. It's not society's problem if the walker can't take their eyes and ears off their optional device called a cell phone.
 
I saw another report of a woman so focused on texting that she walked into a moving train, which knocked her on her a......
 
I wonder if maybe the brilliant human race isn't on the verge of inventing itself right out of existence. Sort of "devolution"?
 


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